1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), and in particular, by way of example but not limitation, to digital calibration of ADCs in which the calibration may be accomplished with dynamic estimation of reference signals that have unknown parameters and/or that have amplitude swings that exceed the full swing of the ADC.
2. Description of Related Art
The natural world operates in an analog domain, but information signals (voice, data, etc.) may frequently be processed, transmitted, or otherwise manipulated more efficiently in the digital domain. The conversion from the analog domain to the digital domain is accomplished with ADCs. An ADC receives as input an analog signal and produces as output a digital signal. However, some information present in the analog signal is necessarily lost during the conversion process even if an ADC is operating in an ideal manner. Unfortunately, real-world ADCs do not operate in an ideal manner. Consequently, the digital output of a real-world ADC does not track the analog input even as accurately as an ideal ADC.
It is therefore beneficial to make and/or tune real-world ADCs to approximate ideal ADCs. Techniques have been developed to calibrate real-world ADCs so as to modify their performance to emulate ideal ADCs as closely as possible. For example, ADCs are traditionally calibrated using high precision digital voltmeters to characterize the errors that result from digitizing static or slowly varying analog reference voltages. The outcome from this static testing forms the basis for a hardware or software implemented calibration scheme. Another method of conventional ADC calibration is the use of a sinusoidal reference signal. The reference is sampled, and estimations of the ideal sample values are calculated. These estimations are calculated using a minimum squared error criterion that requires knowledge of the frequency of the calibration signal. The errors (i.e., the difference between the estimated values and the actual sampled values output by the ADC being calibrated) are then used to build a correction table. The correction table may subsequently be used to modify sampled values of actual (e.g., non-calibration, functional, etc.) analog input signals.
Efficient calibration schemes require that the reference signal be dynamically estimated on a sample-by-sample basis during the ADC calibration period(s). No method currently exists for dynamic estimation of a reference signal (e.g., a calibration signal) with one or more unknown parameters (e.g., frequency, phase, etc.) during an ADC calibration. Hence, existing calibration procedures rely on accurate and costly signal generators and/or precise and expensive measuring components.
The Parent Application (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/196,811) of this Continuation-in-Part Application remedies the above-described problems that existed in previous calibration procedures, as explained hereinbelow. In fact, the deficiencies of the prior art are overcome by the methods and arrangements of the Parent Application. For example, as theretofore unrecognized, it would be beneficial to enable calibration of ADCs using a reference signal of a given waveform type, but with unknown parameters. In fact, it would be beneficial if such a calibration procedure could also be accomplished in real-time using overflow processing capacity of a system in which a single ADC is employed. The invention of the Parent Application provides these benefits.
However, other problems still exist that are not solved by the invention of the Parent Application. For example, using an input signal (e.g., a sine wave) that has an amplitude that does not equal the full scale input range of the ADC can result in a poor calibration. If the amplitude of the input signal is less than the full swing of the ADC, then all quantization levels of the ADC will not be excited; consequently, the ADC will have a loss in performance that results from not being fully calibrated. If, on the other hand, the amplitude of the input signal is greater than the full swing of the ADC, then the calibration of the ADC can be erroneous. Furthermore, due to the fact that nonlinearity and offset errors are unique to each ADC specimen, exactly matching the amplitude of the input signal to the full swing of the ADC is difficult and/or expensive.
The deficiencies of the prior art are overcome by the methods and arrangements of the present invention. For example, as heretofore unrecognized, it would be beneficial to enable calibration of ADCs using a reference signal that exceeds the full swing of the ADC but does not cause an erroneous calibration. In fact, it would be beneficial if such a calibration procedure could also be accomplished in real-time using overflow processing capacity of a system in which an ADC is employed.
These and other benefits are achieved by the methods and arrangements of the present invention, which may optionally be used in synergistic conjunction with the invention of the Parent Application. Additional benefits of the invention of this Continuation-in-Part Application may therefore be achieved by combining the mutual inventive concepts. To that end, in the overall present invention, ADCs may be calibrated using an analog calibration signal that is easy to generate (e.g., a sinusoidal signal). The present invention, however, is equally applicable to other calibration signals as well, such as saw-tooth and triangle waves. Advantageously, a calibration scheme in accordance with the principles of the present invention is independent of the actual parameters of the calibration signal (e.g., amplitude, frequency, initial phase, etc. for a sinusoidal-type calibration signal). Relevant parameters of an applied calibration signal that are needed for a calibration are calculated from the converted digital data.
In one embodiment, the present invention may be composed of several exemplary operational components in order to enable the calibration of an ADC without knowing all of the parameters of a calibration signal. An estimator calculates estimates of relevant parameter(s) (e.g., the frequency) of a calibration signal of a known waveform type from the digital outputs of an ADC. A filter utilizes the temporal information and at least one variable related to the estimated parameter(s) of the calibration signal to reconstruct the calibration signal in the digital domain. Also, a table generator calculates correction table entries from the ADC output and the reconstructed calibration signal.
In another embodiment, the present invention may be composed of several exemplary operational components in order to enable the calibration of an ADC using a calibration signal that exceeds the dynamic range of the ADC. An estimator calculates estimates of relevant parameter(s) (e.g., the frequency) of a calibration signal of a known waveform type from the digital outputs of an ADC. A non-linear processor (NLP) may utilize at least one variable related to one or more of the estimated parameter(s) of the calibration signal to reconstruct (e.g., interpolate the clipped portions of) the calibration signal in the digital domain, regardless of whether the calibration signal exceeds the ADC""s full scale input range. A filter utilizes at least one variable related to the estimated parameter(s) of the calibration signal to reconstruct the calibration signal in the digital domain from the output of the NLP. Also, a table generator calculates correction table entries from the ADC output and the reconstructed calibration signal, optionally truncated to the ADC""s output range by a non-linear function (NLF). For yet another embodiment, it should be noted that the estimator, for example, need not be included whereby the filter and the NLP can use a known parameter(s) of the calibration signal instead of an estimated one(s).
The above-described exemplary components may be implemented in either hardware, software, or some combination thereof. other principles of the present invention, including alternative specific embodiments, are further explained, for example, by the detailed description and related drawings.
The technical advantages of the present invention include, but are not limited to, the following. It should be understood that particular embodiments may not involve any, much less all, of the following exemplary technical advantages.
An important technical advantage of the present invention is that it enables ADC calibration to be fully implemented in software.
Another important technical advantage of the present invention is that it provides robustness against variations in an analog calibration signal.
Yet another important technical advantage of the present invention is the ability to improve the efficiency of ADC calibration; consequently, fewer samples of the calibration signal are required.
Yet another important technical advantage of the present invention is that the whole range of the ADC may be calibrated using a signal that exceeds the ADC""s dynamic range.
Yet still another important technical advantage of the present invention is that the quality constraints on the calibration signal may be relaxed because the calibration signal need not have a well defined amplitude, as long as it exceeds the ADC""s dynamic range.
Yet still another important technical advantage of the present invention is that using a sinusoidal signal that exceeds the dynamic range of the ADC provides for a more uniform excitation of the ADC""s levels, which results in improved Linearity of lower ADC levels.
A still further important technical advantage of the present invention is that the NLP and the filter may be combined to create a more implementation efficient solution using the linear portion of the NLP as a filter.
The above-described and other features of the present invention are explained in detail hereinafter with reference to the illustrative examples shown in the accompanying drawings. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the described embodiments are provided for purposes of illustration and understanding and that numerous equivalent embodiments are contemplated herein.